Purpose: The objective of this study was to assess of the risk of Campylobacter spp. in raw meat such as beef and chicken breast in S. Korea.
Methods: For hazard identification, the general characteristics and outbreaks for Campylobacter were reviewed. For exposure assessment, the prevalence of Campylobacter spp. in beef tartare (BT) and chicken sashimi (CS), and conditions for distribution and storage of the meat were surveyed, followed by @RISK fitting program. Also, predictive models of Campylobacter in raw meat, and consumption amount and frequency for the raw meats were investigated. Dose-response models for Campylobacter were searched though literatures. Eventually, simulation models with @RISK were developed using the collected data to estimate the risk of Campylobacter foodborne illness by the intake of BT and CS.
Results: There was difference in the prevalence between CS and BT samples. Predictive models developed with the Weibull, Polynomial and Davey models were cited to exposure assessment. Appropriate probabilistic distribution for consumption amount was exponential distribution with 66.7 g (CS) and 174.3 g (BT) of mean only for the people who eat these products. Consumption frequencies per month were 0.6% and 11.7% for CS and BT, respectively. Through simulation with the collected data, the risks of Campylobacter foodborne illness per day were 2.37×10-8-4.14×10-4 and 3.90×10-6-1.06×10-3 for CS and BT, respectively.
Significance: Although the risk of Campylobacter spp. in raw meat was low for entire populations in S. Korea, the risk was very high for the people who consume raw meat. Thus, a measure is necessary to reduce the risk of Campylobacter in raw meat.